why are there so many ticks

Up until the last 5 years ago I never got a tick when hunting. I would go through the brushiest tangles hunting for grouse and rabbits and NEVER saw a tick. Now they are all over.Also the deer are covered with em. Used to be I would rarely find a tick on a deer and I always skinned them out and butchered them. Not that way anymore.What's really strange is the deer population is WAY DOWN. Any ideas why ticks are infesting the Notheast???

I have always found ticks in Louisiana and Tx. If i am walking in the woods or heavy brush I like to use quite a bit of insect repellent along my feet, shoes, boots, waist line, neck line. They seem to get in these places. I also use repellent before i skin a deer. I hate ticks. But chiggers are the worst. Summer time chiggers will drive you batty.

Stumps me. I thought they increased with the rise in deer populations. The army uses a product that has 5% permethrin. It works great for ticks and works for mosquitos and chiggers too. You treat your outer clothing with it but let it dry before wearing. It was very effective in the two worst tick hells I've been to, Camp Gruber Oklahoma and Ft Chaffee Arkansas. I've seen it at surplus stores, yellow can/green lid. Come to think of it they also have pouches of powder that you mix with water and dip your clothes in.

Marlin is right about the DDT. Platoon Daddy used to fog down the area where we would stop for the night and it works slick. Millions of people have died from malaria and other insect bourne diseases when the enviros pissed it away. I bet Al Gore didn't gripe when his platoon daddy sprayed down his cubicle, bunk and typewriter when he was in Southeast Asia.

Haven't seen a tick yet this year in NH. Now that I've said that, I'll probably come home from hunting next week with sevral attched to me.

Last year was pretty bad for ticks around here. I was sighting in my new rifle, and my son was busy with his pistol. He had three on him and I had four. When we got home, I felt another one crawling on my neck. By now I got the heebie-jeebies.

So I took a shower and spent the evening in the house. When it was bedtime, I lay down and just as I fall asleep, I feel something crawl across my face, so half-asleep, I slap it and brush it off my face. The next morning when I woke up I found the biggest brown spider half-squished dead laying on the floor in front of my dresser.

After all this, I went into a rage of insect-killing genicide. It was all-out war. I squirted insecticide into every crack and crevice (of the house, wiseguys) and spread insecticide on the lawn. That took care of it for last year. This year I think I will be avante guarde and do it before they get out of hand.

Stumps me. I thought they increased with the rise in deer populations. The army uses a product that has 5% permethrin. It works great for ticks and works for mosquitos and chiggers too. You treat your outer clothing with it but let it dry before wearing. It was very effective in the two worst tick hells I've been to, Camp Gruber Oklahoma and Ft Chaffee Arkansas. I've seen it at surplus stores, yellow can/green lid. Come to think of it they also have pouches of powder that you mix with water and dip your clothes in.

Marlin is right about the DDT. Platoon Daddy used to fog down the area where we would stop for the night and it works slick. Millions of people have died from malaria and other insect bourne diseases when the enviros pissed it away. I bet Al Gore didn't gripe when his platoon daddy sprayed down his cubicle, bunk and typewriter when he was in Southeast Asia.

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Yes I read about these tick tubes they use up in connecticut. you put 7 % permetherin on cotton balls and shove them in cardboard tubes and put them in the woods the mice take the cotton into their nest and any tick that gets on the mouse is killed but they say it doesnt hurt the mouse.They claim ticks go to mice first its their first "host" so if you kill them there that gets rid of alot of them. I made up alot of these tubes and put them around the cabin maybe it will at least keep them down in that area.Ill have to wait and see.

I agree, ticks are blossoming! We used to never have ticks here in Maine, now it seems, they are everywhere! I use a product called "Bio-Spot" on my dogs. It's all natural and is effective against fleas, ticks AND mosquitos and it actually works! I've used it for 3-4 years. It's a lot less expensive than other "flea/tick" products and your animals are protected and can go in the water and a 3 month supply costs no more than $15.-20. What I'm running into with my dogs is that they are ALWAYS scratching! My vet calls it allergies, but I've never had my springers scratch like they are in the last two years or so. Even the "Bio-Spot" helps some, but doesn't stop it. I've changed dog food, and that helps some, but they still scratch a lot until they get some parts of themselves raw. Any ideas?

I had lyme's disease. It totally sucks and was probably the worst 2 weeks of my life. However, it was only 2 weeks. All these stories you hear of people being sick or sore forever are pure folly. It's people getting old. I'm sore here and there. But that's from doing physical work for the last decade and a half.

Not to start some new eco-politcal thread, but I'll take my chances with the bugs and put up with them rather than using repellents and pesticides. I know what a tick can do. I've also seen what cancer does. I'm not sure that if Agent Orange and DDT (Vietnam and farming) gave my father his 2 rounds of cancer or not, but one thing for sure it was a lot worse than my bout with Lyme's. I decided few years ago that if I can't pronounce the chemical name I don't want it on me or in my food. I also know that with this recent apparent rise in pests came with all of these hawks and eagles I never saw before 5 years ago. The food chain starts somewhere.....

But in conclusion, the bugs were always there except for the few decades in which we dumped pesticides without impunity. They are coming back to an area from which they where eradicated. Not pushing into a new area. And I've always thought some bugs are kinda neat too. Ever watch a Praying Mantis?